School of Arts and Sciences

The School of Arts and Sciences, home to 18 departments and approximately 2,700 students, is the largest of SUNY Cortland’s three schools. The variety of opportunities open to students in the School of Arts and Sciences is staggering. Our students major in subjects covering a wide array of interests, from anthropology to physics, from French to new media design, from adolescence education to geographic information systems.

Our students thrive in an atmosphere where learning communities, internships, undergraduate research, service-learning and international education are routine expectations. We are proud of the excellence evident in the achievements and career choices of our students; we are equally proud of the accomplishments of our faculty.

From these web pages we hope you will learn more about the School of Arts and Sciences. As our mission statement makes clear, our commitment to liberal learning is designed to put education “to work in lived contexts, to answer current questions, whether they be how an individual student will get along after graduation or how larger social problems can be solved. This is an engaged liberal arts.” 

As you explore the many programs we offer you will see that our commitment to civic responsibility, environmental responsibility, international education, professional education and social justice is as strong today as it was when our mission was first drafted. The success of this commitment is evident in the careers of our alumni and in the devotion of our alums to supporting the school long after graduation. 

As you browse through these pages we hope you will agree that the School of Arts and Sciences has the resources, the momentum and the commitment to make a significant contribution to the success of SUNY Cortland and to the growth of this region.